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    Czech Mate
    Czech Mate
    Czech Mate
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Czech Mate

    By Krystin Dyers

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Rachel is certain of two things. One: that her abusive ex-boyfriend, Alex, will hunt her down so he can get her back. And two: that she will never love again.

    In an attempt to escape him for good, she flees and travels to the Czech Republic, taking with her only the clothes on her back and the diamond Alex stole in his latest heist. She prays this move will be enough to throw him off her scent, to get him to back away for good.
    But it isn’t. As Rachel adjusts to life in Prague and gets a job teaching English, she starts realizing that she’ll never be free from him, not really. Her heart will never be able to heal and move on.
    That is, until she meets Alexej. Despite sharing the same name, he is the polar opposite of Alex — sweet, caring, and respectful. As Alex closes in on her, Rachel does everything she can to protect her heart and uncover the strength and tenacity she finds she had within her all along.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBryant Street Shorts
    Release dateJun 16, 2020
    ISBN9781094410968

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      Book preview

      Czech Mate - Krystin Dyers

      Chapter One

      The darkness filtered around me as I ran down the glittering street, feet pounding against the damp pavement, moonlight pouring over my back. The weight of the diamond was heavy in the pocket of my jacket, and I kept bringing my hand to my side every few strides just to make sure it was still in place. If I lost it in my mad dash to escape, I would lose everything.

      Because I knew he would chase me. He would never let me go, not willingly. The only way for me to get away — truly — was to expose him, to send him to jail for his crimes. By taking the diamond, I would be able to prove his deceit and get him to pay for everyone he had wronged — including me.

      Without it, I feared for my life.

      And so I let the limpid night take me as I sped through the sleeping city, my lungs raging like a wildfire, my heart thundering like a lion at dawn. I had to go someplace he would never find me, someplace he would never even think to look. While I didn’t know exactly where that was, I did know one thing for certain: I would never love again.

      Section Break

      I jolted awake as the plane touched down, wheels skidding as they made contact with the runway. I had only slept for the last few hours of the flight, utterly exhausted after my escape. But I had made it, finally. I was free of Alex.

      I had ditched my phone in a dumpster back in the US, before I made it to the airport. I assumed he would figure out soon enough that I had caught a flight somewhere, but I didn’t need to give him any head start. I wasn’t sure of Alex’s full tracking capabilities when it came to smartphones, but I sure didn’t want to find out.

      Other than the small knapsack of clothing, toiletries, and snacks I had purchased at the airport (with cash, naturally — credit cards were too easy to trace), the only things remaining from my old life were my passport and the clothes on my back. That — and the diamond clasp in my pocket. I glanced down at my casual black joggers, cinched at the ankles and waist, paired with the faded heather-gray T-shirt. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I sneaked a look around the plane, then lifted my arm and pointed my nose in the direction of my shoulder. Whatever happened next, one thing was certain — I needed a shower.

      I glanced out the window and saw that we were gently rolling along the tarmac. The airport and its surroundings were nondescript and generic. I could have been anywhere or nowhere all at once. Considering it was my first trip outside of the country, I had expected something a little more exotic, but perhaps that would make things easier to adjust to. I had dropped everything and everyone I had ever known — I didn’t necessarily need a complete cultural revamp as well.

      The plane disembarked quickly, and I found myself standing in an aged airport with a flourish of half-hearted modern touches. Speckled gray-and-white tiles spread under my tennis shoes as I walked, following the group of passengers to the customs line. Strange words with odd combinations of letters glared back at me from billboards and hallway signs, and I realized this cultural adjustment might not be as simple as I had previously thought.

      Eventually I made it to a teeming, disorderly line of people with bags under their eyes and hair sticking out at odd angles. I didn’t have a mirror to look at myself, but I imagined I looked much the same. Sleeping — or, rather, imitating the act of sleep — on an international flight had not exactly been the most comfortable thing I’d ever experienced. Truth be told, I had spent most of my time in the air trying to patch together a plan.

      I knew that coming to Europe was a risk. Alex had just been here in November to steal the diamond hidden in my pocket, so he still had his international connections keeping an eye on the investigation. But even so it seemed the most logical place to go. Though I was landing in Prague, I could theoretically head anywhere with just a short train ride. Even if Alex somehow had the capabilities to track my passport (which I couldn’t entirely rule out), I could slip out of the Czech Republic and head anywhere. The freedom was nearly intoxicating.

      Even with that in mind, my goal was to stick to Prague for a while. I needed to find a place to live that was safe — and to do that, I needed an income. Teaching English abroad had always been a goal of mine, at least before I had been sucked into Alex’s world. While I had been too afraid to look up information before I left in case it tipped him off, I knew from my previous research that the Czech Republic was one of the few countries in the European Union that would hire Americans as English teachers. The visa rules were less strict here, meaning that as long as I found gainful employment, I could legally reside without a problem.

      The line had moved faster than I had realized, and suddenly it was my turn to meet the customs agent. I walked forward to the booth and presented him my passport. The man before me was slightly haggard, with sagging cheekbones nestled above a shadowed jaw. Folds of skin had started to develop under his eyes, given them a sunken look that made him appear almost sickly.

      "Dobrý den," he rattled off, thin lips curling into a confusing array of sounds that I had no

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